The Red Krayola (or Crayola) are an experimental rock band who formed in Ho… Read Full Bio ↴The Red Krayola (or Crayola) are an experimental rock band who formed in Houston, Harris County, Texas in late 1966. The group was made up of musician and visual artist Mayo Thompson who has remained the group's leader and sole constant for over 50 years, novelist Rick Barthelme who was the son of Donald Barthelme, and bassist Steve Cunningham who joined them at the age of 17. One night's show at a club called "Love" attracted people to the stage, audience members began to walk on up and improvise with whatever they saw fit, this would be the event that would spawn their secondary auxiliary "The Familiar Ugly" who'd follow and improvise amongst them wherever they so pleased.
After playing at local radio station KNUZ's battle of the bands event hosted in the Gulfgate mall, the Red Crayola were subsequently signed to "International Artists" by house producer Lelan Rogers. He suggested they bring their group of 50 friends into the studio to record a "freak-out" album. Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators would make two instrumental cameos on electric organ and harmonica. The album's title would be coined by Steve Cunningham: The Parable of Arable Land, an album which went on to sell 50,000 copies on its first run and garnered the attention of Jimi Hendrix, John Peel and the Beatles. Thompson described it as "the beginnings of alternative rock" as no advertising nor promotion was done for the record. Their sophomore album "God Bless the Red Krayola and all Who Sail With It" saw drummer Rick Barthelme depart from the band. International Artists provided the release with a quantity of promotion and advertising. The album flopped, selling around 6,000 copies - perhaps due to it's minimalistic sound contrasting with their debuts maximalist noise; Pitchfork wrote "It would take a few decades of post-punk experimentalism before Mayo Thompson's vision would have a truly suitable context". The album would go on to be assessed as a precursor to the Minutemen, Unrest, Bastro and Gastr Del Sol. The Red Krayola's follow-ups never lived up to the success of their debut but always broke new ground and foreshadowed different alternative rock genres.
After playing at local radio station KNUZ's battle of the bands event hosted in the Gulfgate mall, the Red Crayola were subsequently signed to "International Artists" by house producer Lelan Rogers. He suggested they bring their group of 50 friends into the studio to record a "freak-out" album. Roky Erickson of the 13th Floor Elevators would make two instrumental cameos on electric organ and harmonica. The album's title would be coined by Steve Cunningham: The Parable of Arable Land, an album which went on to sell 50,000 copies on its first run and garnered the attention of Jimi Hendrix, John Peel and the Beatles. Thompson described it as "the beginnings of alternative rock" as no advertising nor promotion was done for the record. Their sophomore album "God Bless the Red Krayola and all Who Sail With It" saw drummer Rick Barthelme depart from the band. International Artists provided the release with a quantity of promotion and advertising. The album flopped, selling around 6,000 copies - perhaps due to it's minimalistic sound contrasting with their debuts maximalist noise; Pitchfork wrote "It would take a few decades of post-punk experimentalism before Mayo Thompson's vision would have a truly suitable context". The album would go on to be assessed as a precursor to the Minutemen, Unrest, Bastro and Gastr Del Sol. The Red Krayola's follow-ups never lived up to the success of their debut but always broke new ground and foreshadowed different alternative rock genres.
The Red Crayola On Forty-Five
The Red Krayola Lyrics
We have lyrics for these tracks by The Red Krayola:
Born in Flames At a new life we took aim We set the vast…
Victory Garden Last night in your window sittin' I saw you Adolf, I…
The lyrics are frequently found in the comments by searching or by filtering for lyric videos
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basskick666
I love this mix even more than the lp version. Mayo was years ahead .....10 years later he moved to London and started Rough Trade Records! Great video too! Thanks to HBO for keeping the scene alive
Kelechi
''It's also a challenge to find out, am I irrelevant? Has history passed me by? I don't think so. I think I'm still ahead of the fucking curve! (laughs)'' - Mayo Thompson interviewed by Richie Unterberg on November 13, 1996.
Alexander Stoerk
Amazing song, I like it very much.....I'm so in love with 1967
CB Fall
Outstanding Song
James Aron
I love how you're able to create the perfect videos for songs. The images and effects match the tempo and lyrics perfectly.
Thomas SMITH
and yet another great psych garage band from Texas.
basskick666
Never been to America let alone Texas but whenever Texas gets mentioned on the TV my wife and I always catch each others eye and make a comment along the lines of "Hell Yeah! Texas baby!" We're of course talking about psychedelic rock and roll
marc layne
Beautiful graphics........fits the song perfect....
Dr Jim Nielson
Genius, sound and sight.
Hartley Taylor
Fantastic song. Amazing video. Thanks